Boardcollector Surf Swap

While I was at Sacred Craft I was lucky enough to get up close and personal with one of the most important surfboards of the innovation period. In fact its probably one of the most important surfboards of the modern era.

It is one of the first three fin thrusters (3 fins of equal size) Simon Anderson ever shaped and it is the board he rode at 15 foot Bells, the board that grabbed the surfing worlds attention.

It could be argued that this is the board that signalled the end of the innovation period of surfboard design as eventually every kook and pro would end up on this set up, virtually unchanged, for the next twenty five years. Actually it is the pinicle, the high point of the period, the most sucessful of all the innovations, as shapers contiued to experiment with radical fin placement, tail shapes and outlines for another 5 years before settleing on the thruster.

Here's Simon riding this very surfboard at Bells beach in 1981 and on into the history books, changing the course of surfboard design forever along the way.

Strangely the board drew little attention due to its 'original' condition, proving that you cant judge a book by its cover.

Yes, my shoulder operation is feeling much better thank you Simon.

I have attempted to replicate Simon's famous board by removing two of the fins and severely beating the nose and tail of this early 80's Energy thruster.

The truth is it has become a lot lot harder to find good quality examples of boards from the 80's at a fair price. The good news is they are being found, collected, looked after and appreciated by a growing number of collectors. The bad news is the prices are increasing but my budget has remained the same.

I'm guessing Tony Cerff has shaped more twin fins than anyone else on the planet. According to my records he did time on the planner through the 80's at Mad Dog, JET, Local Motion and Town & Country (Australia). At Mad Dog he shaped many, many MR brand twinnys. This lovely little 6'0", channel bottom, single fly swallow tail JET by Tony came out of the same factory at Byron Bay.
I like its narrow tail and high wide point but its boxy rails and and little if any rocker make it tricky to ride.

Went down on Sunday the 21st of November at the rear of 1000 Hay st Perth.It saw Pre-1990 surfboards, skateboards, vintage surf clothes, beach shack furniture, posters, magazines, art and collectibles.Congrats to Chris Keith and Belle for making it all happen and taking the pics (edited by Carby)

For more info on the next one contact Chris at info@cartercollective.com

This is one of my favorite boards and it is the board that first kicked off the collection. 6'0" single fly swallow tail Gisborne Surf Co' twin fin made before the invention of the common leg rope plug.I had been on a surf trip south of Sydney 15 years ago. We were on our way home, driving through Woolongong when I saw a giant warehouse size 'Cash Converters' pawn shop having a closing down sale. We were looking at TV's and golf clubs and I went upstairs to the mezzanine that was all surfboards. There must have been 10 twin fin, 20 single fins and half a dozen 80's quads. I saw this red twin fin and I thought 'hey that's just like my first surf board, how sad to think its going to the rubbish tip, I bet it would be fun to see how it would go'. I bought it for $15.In retrospect I should have rented a truck and bought the lot.

I've surfed this board a number of times and it goes beautifully. But coming from Gisborne in New Zealand I thought it would have a pretty obscure, unimportant history.

It wasn't till I was packing to move to the US that I finally photographed it and decided to look into its history.

WOAH!! what a find. Seems I'd been sitting on a true classic.Hamish Graham is a truly legendary shaper working on some of the most influential designs of the modern era.Born in New Zealand, his shaping career began in Australia under the "Hot Stuff" label in Queensland in the 70's where he worked on the channel bottom design with fellow New Zealander Al Byrne.

He traveled extensively to Hawaii and California and back to Australia shaping boards for Lightning Bolt, Local Motion in Hawaii and launched Hot Stuff in California in the early 80's. Hamish moved to Santa Barbara in '85-'86 where he built "Byrning Spears Surfboards" for a number of years. Later, he moved to Encinitas where he became the Rip Curl surfboard licensee for U.S.A., building boards for U.S.A. and Hawaii.

Doug wrote to me with pictures of one of the rarest and most beautiful condition original twin fins I have ever seen. Rarer than a 1942 Bordeaux in Nazi occupied France (the most sought after collectable red wine in the world) because in 1982 Mark Richards was world champ and competing around the globe full time. He would have hardly had time to shape his own boards, which is impressive in its own right, let alone gifts for friends-

"I was reading your blog last night for the first time and thought you might like to see my 1942 Bordeaux....

*1982 Twin shaped for me and a surprise gift from MR during the Huntington contest that year.

The sweet spot for me and twin fins was 81-83'. I was riding twins from Shawn Stussy at the time MR made this board for me. There is a whole story here but I will save it for another time. Fast forward, I'm currently riding a super twin from MR...speed is still good!

I was also competing on and riding Bultaco Sherpa T's at that time...There are a few things in my life I wish I had not given up...My De Rosa and my Eddie Merckx push bikes and the 76' Sherpa T...I just loved everything about that bike...it was truly a beautiful motorcycle.

1982 Stubbies Surf Classic Burleigh

The 82 Stubbies was the pinicle of inovation period surfing and surfboard design. The heats included Mark Richards on his own hand shaped twin fin design, Cheyne Horan (winning) on a Geoff McCoy Laser Zap design with Ben Lexan designed winged Star fin, Rabbit Barthlemow on a channel bottom rounded pin tail Hot Stuff, Dane Kealoa on a T&C twin fin and Simon Anderson on his new 3 fin thruster design. Never before or since has there been such a variety of cutting edge surfboard design in one place.

Innovation Period - Definition

The innovation period of surfboard design has also been described as 'T2'. Meaning the second transition period, the first transition period of surfboard design was from late 60's to the early 70's, or short board revolution, where boards went from long boards (10') to short boards (6'), an exciting time for the likes of Dick Brewer and Bob Mc Tavish, who were sawing a foot off their boards at a time. The second transition period was from the late 70's to the early 80's when surf boards went from 1 fin to 3 fins and beyond.

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About Me

I've been collecting innovation period surf boards since 1990. I was trained as an industrial designer and I love surfboards as pieces of hydrodynamic design. I am an art lover and I appreciate surfboards as hand crafted sculptures and I admire their graphic designs and art works. Mainly I am a dedicated surfer and regularly surf each of the boards in my collection.